The poppy.
It has been used since 1921 as a symbol of remembrance in Canada, a visual pledge not to forget those Canadians who have fallen in war.
Other countries also have adopted its image to honour those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
The association between the poppy and war dead goes back at least as far as the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, when poppies grew thickly over the graves of soldiers in Flanders.
Just before the First World War, few poppies grew in Flanders, a region now divided between Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
During the tremendous bombardments of that war, the chalk soils became rich in lime from rubble, allowing poppies to thrive. When the war ended, the lime was quickly absorbed and the poppies became less common.
The person responsible more than any other for the adoption of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance in Canada and the Commonwealth was Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian medical officer during the First World War.
Born in Guelph, McCrae already belonged to the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada when he attended the University of Toronto Medical School.
After Britain declared war on Germany in 1914, he enlisted and was appointed brigade surgeon to the First Brigade of the Canadian Forces Artillery.
In 1915, he was stationed in Flanders near Ypres, Belgium. There, he treated hundreds of wounded soldiers.
In May 1915, the day after the death of a fellow soldier, McCrae wrote his now famous work, an expression of his anguish over the loss of his friend and a reflection of his surroundings - wild poppies growing amid simple wooden crosses marking makeshift graves.
These 15 lines, written in 20 minutes, live on ...
The poem was first published in December 1915 in Punch magazine.
McCrae died of pneumonia in France in January 1918. He was 45.
Later the same year, Moina Michael, an American teacher working in New York City, read McCrae's poem.
She immediately made "a personal pledge to keep the faith and vowed always to wear a red poppy of Flanders fields as a sign of remembrance ..."
Two years later, during a 1920 visit to the United States, a French woman, Anna Guerin, learned of the custom.
On her return to France, she decided to use handmade poppies to raise money for the destitute children in war-torn areas of the country.
Following Guerin's example, the Great War Veterans' Association in Canada (the predecessor of The Royal Canadian Legion) officially adopted the poppy as its Flower of Remembrance on 5 July 1921.
The lapel poppies worn in Canada were first made, beginning in 1922, by disabled veterans.
For many years, poppy material was made at the Vetcraft sheltered workshops run by Veterans Affairs Canada in Montreal and Toronto.
About 10 years ago, the Legion volunteered to take over the responsibility for the production of poppies from Veterans Affairs. A private company now makes them under contract, but all operations are conducted under strict Legion control and oversight.
In Flanders fields-John McCrae, 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Later,
Kenaz
